Remakes are a touchy subject in media. Sometimes you have great movies that have their legacy almost ruined by remakes, and sometimes you have one that actually does the original product justice and possibly even improves on it. When doing a remake there are so many things to take into account. Obviously all of these things are rarely done to perfection, as it's more than just pointing these things out and doing them, but it's obvious when these things are taken into consideration. I might do a favorite remakes post before long, but for now, here are remakes I would love to see.
The Legend of Zelda: Adventure of Link
Anyone who knows me knows that it's difficult for me to go through anything that involves video games without mentioning the Legend of Zelda. The Adventure of Link is kind of the black sheep of the Zelda family. It's more different than the rest of the series than any other Zelda game (canon). Adventure of Link did bring in a lot of new, and great elements to the series though. It increased the RPG elements of the game, which before were nothing more than gaining life through heart containers and getting new items. With Adventure of Link your toughness, attack power, and magic power could all be leveled up, and there were both heart and magic containers all over the world. Even the use of magic was first done with the Adventure of Link. Because of the side scrolling action though that involved platforming, a lot of fans thought it was too different to be a good Zelda game. Well, that's their loss. This is actually an excellent game.
So, what changes would I make? Well, I'd keep it far different than any other Zelda game so far, but in a way that might open the door to changes to the series that fans would actually really like. Anyway, I would start the game with a scene explaining the story, keeping it virtually the same, maybe giving a little bit more depth, but I wouldn't change any of the actual story. From there you would start off in the palace, but it would be a 3D palace. In fact, the entire game would be in 3D. Everything would be generally in the same place, but like I just said, in 3D. For the temple where you begin, the general idea for that temple would be something like your home base in Shadow of the Colossus, in fact, it would be very much like that in many ways.
Anyway, out in the field, intead of having giant black figures with glowing outlines come at you to initiate a battle sequence, there would just be random battles throughout the field. Random enemies would come at you. The one major difference this would likely bring is that with slower enemies or enemies that pause before attacking this would allow you to run from battles. Anyway, the overworld would be absolutely massive. Forests would feature actual trees that you would have to walk around and avoid.
The temples would have to be somewhat reworked, but could largely work in the same way. For temples in the game where there were several screens for one large room, those would be made into one massive room. I would vary the shapes of the rooms, as making them all just rectangular would be boring. Also, it would more be that the sequence of the rooms you go through would be the same, as I would like for the dungeons to have maps that are more than two dimensions.
The combat, for the most part, would be very similar to the other 3D Zelda games with similar controls. Boss battles would be a little bit more intuitive though. For instance, the Horse Head battle, since it is the first one, would be something that would be more based on dodging and attacking. Once you get to the Barba battle, I'm thinking something where the boss comes out of the lava pit, but you have to climb up it, avoiding obstacles on the way up, and then inflicting damage once you get to the top, getting up there before it goes back into the lava. The Gooma battle would be something like the mini boss at Snowpeak in Twilight Princess, but I'd like to see something more to it, maybe he's larger, just something to make it different, maybe you can sidestep the weapon easier...something.
Also, things like the River Devil would be more complex. You wouldn't be able to get past the River Devil just by playing a song. It would be more, maybe you have to go somewhere to learn the song, maybe you have to answer some question that requires you to do something else, maybe you have to collect something for him, something more complex. Some of the chambers that have heart and magic containers would also be more complex, maybe a miniboss or something (rather a new one or something based off of one in another game in the series).
I think I've gone more than deep enough into my ideas for this. This isn't every difference that I would have to see made, and some areas would be easier than others to recreate, but I think this could wind up being a very good game and a great new way to look at Adventure of Link that could get it new life among many of the fans of the series who are not as big of fans of the game.
Tarzan Boy by Baltimora
If you ask me, this is the song that really should be the National Anthem of the United States of America. Why? Because it's just such an awesome song! Well, okay, not that far, it's actually almost more awesomely bad, but at the same time, listen carefully beyond just the vocals and synth. This is a song that could have a great doom version of it made. The guitars in the song already play near doom style chords, they just need a tweak in the key and turned way up. The rest of the song can be changed to still fit and be recognizable by the standards of the original song, but at the same time be something completely new. While this would be something a little more for fun rather than serious musicianship, I think it would be very entertaining, that that's what music is for.
Night Court
I don't know if there have been too many television series that have been remade outside of being made for another country (like The Office or the legendary Kath & Kim), but if there is one that could be done great today, it's Night Court. With everything in the news about boneheaded judges and some of the insane behavior of people out there, this show could be given an entirely new dimension. While it would be quite different from the Night Court we all remember, the general premise would remain the same. We just have so much more material to use for comedy in today's world than we did back then, and thanks to the internet, better access to it. The writers for the show would have one of the best and easiest jobs in the world. I would prefer that the theme song remain the same.
UHF
This is a very touchy subject for movies. Nowhere have we seen as many good things ruined by bad remakes as in movies. UHF is one that I think, in the right hands, can be done well though. The Weird Al movie from 1989 was, as Weird Al put it (not in his exact words though), just an excuse for a bunch of buddies to mess around and make a movie. The same spirit would have to be kept, and I think a lot of the cast could probably be in this version, especially Weird Al, who looks younger now than he did then. The references in the movie could be updated (although that's another area where they would need to be very careful, references would need to be of movies that can hold a candle to what the original references were of). A lot of today's moviegoers probably don't even get what half of the references in UHF are from. Like I said above, it's tough to do a good movie remake, but UHF is one that I can see being very good when put into the right hands.
There you have it, remakes that I would like today from four different forms of media. Now, nothing guarantees that any of those remakes would be any good, but I do think that they could be done well.
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